BBC WILL play Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead in chart countdown but won't broadcast tasteless Thatcher protest single in fullSong has now sold 20,000 copies since Thatcher's death on Monday It has been pushed up the charts due to an internet campaignThe track, which costs 79p online, is currently No1 on iTunesAlso on course to become the shortest top 10 single ever at 51 seconds BBC confirms it will play it on Radio 1 this Sunday – but a shorter version'The BBC finds this
campaign distasteful but does not believe the record should be banned,' a spokesman said

In 2009 a Facebook campaign was designed to prevent another X Factor number one.

As a consequence Rock band Rage Against the Machine won the most competitive battle in years for the Christmas number one.

The
band's single, Killing In The Name, sold 500,000 downloads beating X
Factor winner Joe McElderry's The Climb by 50,000 copies to clinch the
top spot.

MPs from both Labour and the
Conservative party united in saying it would be wrong to give airtime to
a song denigrating our greatest peacetime Prime Minister less than a
week after her death.

The ruling comes after accusations of
'Left-wing bias' over the BBC's coverage of Lady Thatcher's death. It
could be the first major leadership test for new director general Tony
Hall, the chairman of the Culture Media and Sport select committee
warned last night.

John Whittingdale said: 'This is an
attempt to manipulate the charts by people trying to make a political
point. Most people will find that offensive and deeply insensitive, and
for that reason it would be better if the BBC did not play it. It's a
political act.

'Sometimes the BBC has taken the
decision not to play a record because it is offensive, such as the Sex
Pistols' God Save the Queen, but that is a matter for the director
general, who will be appearing before my committee in two weeks.'

Labour backbencher Gerry Sutcliffe
added: 'Obviously nobody wants censorship of music or culture but there
has to be dignity in death. While I disagreed with everything she stood
for, she was a leader and a Prime Minister so I don't think it would be a
good idea to promote that single.'

Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead was
written for the soundtrack of the 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz and sung by
Judy Garland, who played Dorothy, the Munchkins and Glinda the Good
Witch, played by Billie Burke.

The song, written by E.Y. Harburg and
composed by Harold Arlen, is sung as they celebrate the death of the
Wicked Witch of the East after Dorothy 'dropped a house on her'. It
includes the lyrics: 'Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead/She's gone where
the goblins go/Below, below, below.'

Since Lady Thatcher died on Monday, it
has become an anthem of hate for hordes of Left-wingers who have set up
Facebook pages encouraging their friends to buy it.

Supporters of Lady Thatcher urged the
public to download Madonna's song True Blue – the Whitehall codename for
the preparations for her funeral – instead.

Decision: In what could be seen as the first major test for the new director general Tony Hall, the BBC will now have to take a decision about whether they will play the tune during Radio 1's top 40 countdown when places are finalised at the weekend

Conservative peer Baroness Buscombe
said: 'So many of these people who are buying this song probably weren't
even alive when she was turning this country from being entirely broke,
with no future or prospects, into one giving us all hope and enterprise
and inspiration. I think it's a great shame if people think it's the
right thing to do to dance on her death.'

Tory MP Henry Smith said it would be
'silly and absurd' for the BBC to play the track on Sunday. He said:
'The song is in particularly poor taste. If I was the person in charge
of making the decision I would choose not to play that track. However,
it is ultimately irrelevant. Margaret Thatcher's towering reputation
will survive this. She was someone who stood for freedom of expression,
so we can't ban these sick and misguided protests.'

Another Conservative MP, Philip Davies, defended the BBC's decision, saying it had a duty to play the song on its chart show.

He said: 'It's a chart programme so if
it's top of the charts they have to play it. It's not for the BBC to
define on what basis something is in the charts.

'However I think this whole campaign
is pretty pathetic really if the best these Left-wingers can achieve in
their lives is to campaign for a song. Compared to Lady Thatcher's
achievements around the world, it just shows what a fantastic Prime
Minister she was that she defeated these people time and again and they
are still bitter about it.'

In 1977 the BBC refused to play the
Sex Pistols' anti-monarchy song God Save the Queen during the Silver
Jubilee celebrations. It reached number one in the NME music magazine
chart, but only number 2 in the official singles chart – selling 150,000
copies in its first week.

VIDEO Social media campaigner backing the song's rise up the charts defends his project